


A Nightmare of A Situation

by SquirrelKiln



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Animated (2007)
Genre: Character Death, Cybertronians can dream fuck you, Nightmares, Posttraumatic nightmares, Randomly wrote this last night, Self-Hatred, Short, Surprisingly without using it as venting! Haha Prowl is traumatized
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:29:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27084139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquirrelKiln/pseuds/SquirrelKiln
Summary: In which Prowl returns to his home in his dreams.Might be vaguely inspired by "Digital Love" by Daft Punk, since I've been listening to it a lot lately.Edit: Totally forgot to mention I reconstructed the dojo for my personal usage--canonically it's not alone as a building, but I figured it needed more mystique.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	A Nightmare of A Situation

Holographic petals fluttered to the ground around Prowl’s pedes. Upon hitting something that moved or after landing on something still for a few seconds, they vanished into thin air. After living in the Cyberninja dojo for so long in order to train, he was almost surprised he had yet to grow tired of the sight. The only change was that, with said training, he could stand still enough for the petals to fall on him without dissipating immediately. The metal forest surrounding the dojo was one of many technological wonders of Cybertron but it was one of the few that Prowl found himself appreciating.

Still, he was only outside for a little longer before returning to the dojo. The dojo’s usual silence had yet to bother him, considering at the time he was the only Cyberninja-in-training and Yoketron the only Master. Prowl was already considering going against his previously held mentality to try and recruit more bots into the Corps--expand the family so to speak. As Prowl moved about the dojo, he realized that it was so silent due to the absence of the only other mech there. Regardless of that, Prowl continued with his chores to make sure they were completed by the time his master returned.

While Prowl no longer needed to be made to clean and therefore didn’t require conditioning praise, Yoketron made it a point to thank him for all the work he’s done. It provided constant motivation, the drive to please Yoketron. Prowl practically made a game of it, as he always did when he had more on his plate than usual--using the skills he developed as a street bot helped him with swaying and skillfully completing those chores in a relatively short time. He only stopped what he was doing when he heard footsteps approaching the dojo’s doors. 

Prowler set his broom down and went to the front of the dojo. He was the first to open the doors to welcome his master… But was met with only confusion when no one was there. 

“Master Yoketron?” He looked around. Half of his processor was wondering if Yoketron was playing a prank on him, or if it were a test. But after utilizing his Cyberninja abilities, he found there truly was no one there. He clicked his glossa and returned to his broom to finish up cleaning… But found a holographic petal falling on his servo instead. The pink petal dissipated within a moment, despite Prowl standing still, and he found that more continued to fall around him. But how? He was inside.

A look to the ceiling provided no answers, only questions. There were holes in the ceiling that exposed the sky outside. The limited atmosphere was dark and overcast and the metallic forest shed petals into the exposed dojo. When Prowl looked down and then around him, he was met with a horrible sight. The dojo was in  _ ruin _ and the only place he ever really called home looked like a storm pulled through it with no other reason than to destroy. More of the ceiling had caved in, there were scorch marks decorating the walls and holes that came from ammunition shots and what looked like some sort of blade slashes into the walls.

The broom clattered to the ground when Prowl busied his servos with his shuriken instead. He needed to find whoever he did this. He needed to find--

“Master!” Prowl called out. This didn’t make sense. How could all this happen without him seeing, without him being there to protect his home? It felt like he was running forever before Prowl saw  _ him _ . Yoketron laid bleeding on the ground, energon pooling around him as if he was lying in a body of water. As if he were enjoying a peaceful moment instead of having his life force drain slowly. Prowl fell to his knees besides Yoketron, feeling the spilled Energon creeping along his legs.

“Prowler…” Yoketron’s voice was faint, the light in his optics dim. His optics stayed trained on the ceiling. “You’ve failed.”

Prowl’s spark seemed to seize in his chest. “Wh-what--? Master, save your energy, I’ll call a medbot imme--”

“You were not here when I needed you.” Yoketron’s normally smooth voice was strained. “Not only have you failed the Corps, you have failed  _ me. _ You are unfit of the Cyberninja title.” His optics dimmed further.

“M-master, please, don’t--” Prowl could hardly speak. His shoulders slumped and he felt nothing less than worthless, like he had not long before arriving at the dojo. Yoketron had never spoken to him in such a way but it didn’t take long for Prowl to revert to the same level of self doubt he dwelled in for years. “Don’t leave me.”

“Loneliness is all you deserve. It is the fate that has been decided for you and you will find yourself dwelling in before long.” Yoketron’s voice started to grow fainter. The light in his optics was entirely darkened. Despite what he was being told, Prowl grasped at Yoketron’s servo to clutch it to his chassis.

“ _ I can’t lose you. I’m sorry I’m not good enough. _ ” Prowl felt washer fluids starting to trail down his faceplate… But it was too late. Yoketron was gone. He had died ashamed of his student, disappointed in his lack of accomplishment. Prowl sobbed where he was, his frame shaking, and in the end all he could do was cry out at the unforgiving sky above him. Without Yoketron, what did he have? Who could he be?

Even when he jolted out of stasis and was disrupted from the uncommon world of Cybertronian dreams, Prowl couldn’t stop the despair that dwelled in his sparkchamber and extended throughout his body. He choked for vents and felt real tears fall down his faceplate. Despite knowing now that he was trapped in a dream and not reality, despite knowing that Yoketron would never say such horrible things… It didn’t change what he experienced in the end.

Yoketron was dead. Prowl failed to become a real Cyberninja as he should have… Despite the people he knew were resting nearby, he could never escape the loneliness that stuck with him throughout his excuse for a life.


End file.
